Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Finchampstead 3rd XI

4th June 2011

Report by Sunny.

Fichamsptead 3rd were our next opposition for our 5th league game of the year and with a good season so far the first XI team were very keen to win the game against the team who were at the bottom of the league but as we all know teams anywhere in table are still an opposition that we need to beat to be at the top of the table till the end of 2011.

Steve (who I called Cleevely until the very last over of our bowling session and then politely advised by Crofty that I sounded like his Head Master) came back into our team after a 2 year hiatus and looking at this whites which were cleaned just the other night we could see he was keen to be back with the boys playing cricket. Welcome back Steve and I hope you enjoy playing with this season…

When I arrived at the ground most of them were already there and others were trickling slowly onto the square. Upon inspection of the pitch (more like a road I would say) we decided that it would be sensible to bat first if we win the toss. Given that I had a 50% chance I will be calling the toss correctly I was looking forward to calling it right. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and we fielded first.

Cooky and Lemmy started off in the same passion like last week. Lemmy who was in pain (and his trousers stained with blood marks, again !) bowled well through his spell of 8 overs and a few good balls kept all of us excited. Cooky found his rhythm from ball one and kept teasing the batsmen. We were unlucky until the very first break when he got an edge off the opening bat which Phil Jenks took with ease.

In his marathon spell of 20 overs on the trot, many batsmen came and left and one of my phrases, “Cooky, I love the welcome mate, lets have a Good Bye soon” got a few chuckles as we went along taking wickets. I need to take some credit when I get it right In the end he got 4 crucial wickets at the right time which was key to our victory in the end.

After Lemmy’s spell, I decided to get Harry to turn his arm and boy he did. He got the dangerous looking batsmen (who had an unfortunate incident later during the day) bowled when he tried to sweep him. All loved the moment when Harry kept appealing for LBW although the bails had been disturbed already. Shows how much passion this lad has…

After Harry’s short spell it was time to unleash the magic of Mohammed (for people who don’t know who this is, its Jamil but given the Cleevely episode earlier during the day I want to be consitent) and he was into action from ball 1. Jimmy found his line and length very soon and kept troubling batsmen all day and finished with 4 scalps to his name. It was great to see a guy as young as Jimmy (in his early teens this year) to be bowling this well.

After Cooky’s shortish spell it was time for some action from Ash who with his usual flair kept bowling his offies, leggies and quicker ones and got the vital breakthrough of another batsman who was playing his strokes. He also took a low catch at second slip (after turning down my offer for him to stand at Silly Mid Off to a guy who was playing his shots, not sure what his problem was but hey..)

Finch were playing in typical Dennis Robertson style and were 100 in 30 overs and then suddenly changed gears and ended up at 182 in 50 overs.

After a quick tea we started out batting session and I was the first to go chipping to point which then got Hammad Ali to the crease. He too had a short session in the middle which got Ash into the middle. Coming fresh from his scores last week he looked at ease from ball 1 and started timing the ball early on.

Mohammed (Jimmy) on the other hand started off by dancing down the wicket first ball to the spinner and played with that same aggression throughout the innings that was filled with 11 boundaries and lot of running between the wickets with Ash. It would be good to watch Ash and Osman run between the wickets one day though…wonder who would be the quickest…any bets ?

Back to the game, Jimmy’s cut shot over gully for a four was one of the best shots of the day esp after an incident where one of the players in the opposition was hit very had on his head by his teammate trying to aim at the stumps in the attempt to get Jimmy out. The game was stopped for almost and hour and the first thing Jimmy wanted before the game restarted was….no, not his fags like you would imagine but a helmet. After “trying” it for a few seconds he felt it wasn’t right for him to wear a helmet and mentioned that he was far comfortable and safer in his red Nike cap.

Ash left the middle after reaching his 50 attempting to powerful drive which sneaked under his bat to rattle the stumps which then got Crofty to the crease. Crofty was at his best and was timing the ball and hit a flurry of boundaries and to make sure that we win the game convincingly ran for 2 runs even when the scores were level.

It was a convincing win this Saturday and we now look forward to the game against Cove coming weekend. The team has been playing some very good, competitive cricket and the fighting spirit has been outstanding.

Cmon the rest of the TVL 4B League….we are here to challenge you till the end of the season…..

THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team		Finchampstead 3						Away Team		T&T
Date of Match		06 June 2011						Played at		Finchampstead

		Team							Result	Team
Result		T&T							Beat	Finchampstead 3

1st Innings of
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	G Biggs	ct			P Jenkins			C Cook				20
2	M Bloggs	ct			P Jenkins			C Cook				32
3	M Brazley	Bowled						H Osborn				27
4	P West	Bowled						C Cook				0
5	A Boobeyer	ct			A Mishra			C Cook				6
6	I Rose	LBW						A Mishra				30
7	D Scholes	Bowled						M Jamil				25
8	M Arnold	LBW						M Jamil				8
9	S West	Not Out										13
10	L Matthews	Bowled						M Jamil				0
11	R Brown	ct			C Cook			M Jamil				1
							Byes	4
							Leg Byes	8
							Wides	7
							No Balls	1
									Extras			20

							Wickets		Total			182

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	C Cook		20	4	65	4
2	C Lemm		8	2	34	0
3	M Jamil		11	1	30	4
4	H Osborn		6		23	1
5	A Misra		5	1	18	1
6
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	41	1				41
2	66	2				25
3	66	4				0
4	73	5				7
5	108	3				35
6	157	6				49
7	166	7				9
8	169	8				3
9	169	10				0
10	182	11				13




2nd Innings of
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	M Jamil	Not Out								11		82
2	S Kumar	ct			D Scholes			L Matthews				2
3	H Ali	LBW						R Brown				0
4	A Misra									6		50
5	A Crofts	Not Out								4		26
6	S Cleevely
7	H Osborn
8	C Lemm
9	C Cook
10	A Parcell
11	P Jenkins
							Byes	16
							Leg Byes	2
							Wides
							No Balls	6
									Extras			24

							Wickets		Total			184

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	R Brown		7		31	1
2	L Matthews		6	1	12	1
3	M Bazley		4		17
4	A Boobeyer		7		56
5	S West		6	2	17	1
6	P West		3.2		33
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	12	2				12
2	17	3				5
3	136	4				119
4						48
5						0
6						0
7						0
8						0
9						0
10